Each year the electronics industry develops new techniques for fabricating integrated circuits (IC). The great majority of semiconductor devices currently in use employ silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, or other similar inorganic materials. Many new IC designs utilize extremely thin alternating layers of semiconductor material that measure only a few atoms or molecules in depth. The physical integrity of these "ultra-thin" strata depends upon the physical and chemical forces which hold together the crystalline structure of these materials. When atoms in these crystals are not properly aligned with their neighbors, the resulting "lattice mismatch" can produce mechanical strains that can create dislocations within the crystal. These defects can impair the ability of a crystalline layer to conduct electrons and holes, and so can destroy the usefulness of the semiconductor device in which it resides.
In recent years, many researchers have investigated the use of organic materials to manufacture integrated circuits. In contrast to inorganic materials, organic crystalline materials are held together by relatively weak van der Waals forces. This phenomenon binds the atoms and molecules in the organic crystal in a less rigid, and hence in a more forgiving, fashion than is the case in inorganic structures. As a consequence, organic crystals are less susceptible to the failures caused by mechanical strains that can be built in to the crystal during their fabrication.
One of greatest challenges confronting scientists and engineers in the integrated circuit industry is the development of organic crystalline materials that are suitable for the mass production of integrated circuits. Devices constructed from these organic materials would be highly valuable due to the unique optoelectronic properties offered by many organic substances. The perfection of fabrication methods for these organic integrated circuits would constitute a major technological advance in the IC business. The enhanced performance that could be achieved using these methods would satisfy a long felt need within the semiconductor industry.